Green Teeth

Making approachable edibles.

Rachel Green knows there’s a stigma attached to
“medibles,” the marijuana community’s term for pot that is eaten rather
than smoked.

“Some people have
negative associations from bad brownies in the ’70s, or they just have
weak stomachs and they can’t eat the medibles,” she says from her
production facility in North Portland, a batch of hash cookies baking in
the kitchen. “But if you include the peppermint oil, that’s a medible
they can consume.”

She’s
referring to the special peppermint bark she and her sister, Tammy,
made for the holidays. It’s just one of the medibles the women produce
under the imprimatur Lady Green’s Treats. Their lollipops, lozenges,
salves and candy bars aim to make pot-infused consumables approachable
beyond the college stoner set.

“A couple of old gals
may say, ‘Marijuana, I won’t take that! But cosmetic cream—oh honey,
I’ll take some of that!’” says Rachel, a self-described 40-something
hippie who gets visibly excited discussing anything weed-related.
“Flower is taboo—but a lozenge, that’s benign.”

The
Green sisters are the last living siblings of nine kids. Rachel is the
marijuana expert, while Tammy helps with the business end. Rachel got
her Oregon Medical Marijuana Program card four years ago. She was a
recreational pot smoker unhappy with how prescription pills made her
feel. She started growing her own marijuana, and gradually began
experimenting with extractions that separate the medicinal properties
from plant matter. She turned to Budbook, a now-defunct social-media
site connecting patients and legal growers, to develop a test audience
for her initial hash recipes.

“The
first time I crushed down absolutely beautiful bud and dumped vodka all
over it,” she says, “there weren’t people really talking about it on
the Internet.”

Now,
though, Lady Green’s Treats provides its goods to individuals as well
co-ops, collectives and clubs around town, including its popular
hard-candy jewels and original candy bar, which has evolved into three
variants. Regardless of quantity or dosage, prices remain fixed, keeping
the focus on taste and consistency. If you go to Lady Green’s
directly—clients don’t technically buy medical marijuana in Oregon, they
reimburse your source—the fudges are $1 and lollipops are $1.25.

“We’re trying to keep it very cheap,” Rachel says. “We’re trying to keep people comfortable, not empty their wallets.”

Customer
appreciation is central to the Lady Green’s operation. The daughter of a
92-year-old man for whom Rachel had made a special batch of
“fuck-you-up grandpa brownies” sent an email thanking her for making his
final days more comfortable. An insomniac client contributed the
company’s motto: “Lady Green’s candy dreams—eat candy like a kid, sleep
like a baby.”

But
with House Bill 3460 making marijuana dispensaries fully legal,
beginning March 3, Lady Green’s will be required to pay for lab testing
to quantify the potency of each batch of medibles. It will have to pass
that cost to clients, and if each batch has to be tested, it would delay
time between baking the product and getting it to customers,
jeopardizing freshness. Lady Green’s started as a way to help ill people
by giving them Rachel’s leftover medical herbs, and she worries about
alienating clients with higher costs.

Economic
issues aside, Rachel is excited that medical dispensaries are becoming
fully legal, giving structure to her business. But Lady Green’s has no
plans to change its intimate model. The Green sisters will continue
delivering products personally, and Rachel will continue dosing each
batch by hand.

“My
hands make every single product,” she says. “[Tammy] may be cooking up
the cookies, but I made that dough. She might help trim and package
them, but I make every lollipop, every salve, every tincture—every
everything.”

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